Church Of St Peter

BRISTOL

ST5973 CASTLE PARK 901-1/40/184 (South side) 08/01/59 Church of St Peter

II*

Church. C12 lower tower, the rest C15. Pennant rubble with limestone ashlar dressings to an open shell without roof or glass. Aisled, unclerestoreyed nave and W tower. Early Perpendicular Gothic. c1950 rebuilt E end of plain rubble; S aisle has a 5-light E window with alternate tracery. N aisle of 7 bays articulated by buttresses, with a deep plinth: small C15 four- and 2-light cinquefoil-headed windows with square heads in the E bay, an octagonal rood stair tower against the buttress of the second bay, and a large chamfered bullseye in the middle one; the sixth bay is windowless, and there are 5-light windows in the remainder; arched door in the W bay has shafts to polygonal moulded capitals within a continuous casement moulding with Tudor flowers, and an arch of sandstone voussoirs. Broader S aisle of 6 bays with wide 5-light windows between buttresses, and a late Perpendicular E window, blind below a transom. The W ends of the aisles are gabled, a narrow 3-light window with mullions to top of the arch in the N side, and a 5-light window in the S. A large, square, unbuttressed 3-stage tower flush with the aisles: a wide doorway with 3 orders separated by hollow mouldings below a rubble relieving arch; 3-light window above, and a small 2-light flat-headed window to the second stage; the belfry has a 2-light louvred window, a cornice with gargoyles on the corners and a crenellated parapet with crocketed pinnacles. INTERIOR: roofless and undecorated: 3-bay arcade on the N side with stairs to rood; broad S aisle, with windows the width of the bay sharing a half-round shaft. The base of the tower and arcades are reinforced with concrete. HISTORICAL NOTE: excavations of 1975 suggest that this was the site of Bristol's first church; the C12 city wall runs under the W end of the present church. It was gutted in the Second World War, and preserved as a ruin by the City; the concrete was put in in 1974. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 59; Smith M Q: The Medieval Churches of Bristol: Bristol: 19).

Listing NGR: ST5912273096